Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, has launched a new Scopus module that will provide metrics for articles indexed in Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature.

The Article Metrics Module enhances the value of Scopus for researchers by enabling them to make quick decisions around articles based on a summary of authoritative research metrics. In addition, researchers will be able to more easily benchmark articles (including their own) against similar works without compromising the speed of their workflow.

“We believe no single metric gives the whole story – you need a basket of metrics to make informed decisions,” said Michael Habib, Senior Product Manager Scopus, Elsevier. “This new Article Metrics Module, by combining citation and alternative metrics, will provide the most comprehensive view of both impact and community engagement of an article.”

How it works

For any given Scopus article page, citation and alternative metrics are displayed in both a quick view sidebar and a full details dashboard.

For the alternative metrics, Scopus has introduced the Snowball Metrics standard definitions which are:

Scholarly Activity - Downloads and posts in common research tools such as Mendeley and CiteULike*.

Social Activity* - Mentions characterized by rapid, brief engagement on platforms used by the public, such as Twitter, Facebook and Google +.

Scholarly Commentary* - Reviews, articles and blogs by experts and scholars, such as F1000 Prime, research blogs, and Wikipedia.

Mass Media* - coverage of research output in the Mass Media (e.g. coverage in top tier media).

In addition to displaying the established metric of Field-Weighted Citation Impact, Scopus has introduced new percentile benchmark metrics for citations, Scholarly Activity, and Social Activity. These benchmarks show how citations or activity received by this article compare with the averages for articles of the same discipline, age, and document type.

About ScopusScopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and features tools to track, analyze and visualize scholarly research. Its comprehensive database contains 55+ million items indexed from 21,000 titles from more than 5,000 publishers worldwide, ensuring broad interdisciplinary coverage in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities. Scopus was designed and developed with input from researchers and librarians and features direct links to subscribed full-text articles, other library resources and interoperability with applications such as reference management software. Scopus is part of the Elsevier Research Intelligence portfolio which includes the SciVal tools, the Pure system, rich data assets and custom Analytical Services.

About ElsevierElsevier is a global information analytics business that helps scientists and clinicians to find new answers, reshape human knowledge, and tackle the most urgent human crises. For 140 years, we have partnered with the research world to curate and verify scientific knowledge. Today, we’re committed to bringing that rigor to a new generation of platforms. Elsevier provides digital solutions and tools in the areas of strategic research management, R&D performance, clinical decision support, and professional education; including ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, ClinicalKey and Sherpath. Elsevier publishes over 2,500 digitized journals, including The Lancet and Cell, 39,000 e-book titles and many iconic reference works, including Gray's Anatomy. Elsevier is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. www.elsevier.com